Preaching in Spanish again

Ronald Tubillas, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Vision, is on a trip to Guatemala preaching in the church that Bro. Wayne Cooke started. Be praying for him as he preaches there.
Bro. Tubillas also asked me if I would fill his pulpit while he was out! I will be preaching Sunday am and pm. Please be praying for me that God will use His word through me and that He will be glorified in all I say and do. I feel very privileged, and at the same time, humbled to have the opportunity to fill the pulpit for a great man of God like Ronald. I will write tomorrow night and let you know how it goes.
God Bless,
David

Happy Birthday!!!!!!

Well, I haven't posted anything since I was in Peru, back in July and August. I know, I should be trying to work at this harder and keep everyone up to date on what is going on and what God is doing. Well, I guess I am turning over a new leaf and starting over with this blog thing on the day of my birthday (its actually night time right now).
I really have to thank God for having people around me that love me and care for me. I am the baby of the family that always wants the center of attention to be yours truly, but I was so humbled today to get a "happy birthday" from all of the people that I care so much about. I called Bro. Blackstock to ask him if he wanted to go out to eat and by the time we sat down at the restaurant, we had a party going! He had called a lot of my friends and had all of them meet us at Longhorn, I was really humbled that he would try to throw an impromptu birthday party to let me know how much he loved me, it was one of the greatest birthday parties I think I have ever had. Just to know people care.
Not only that, but my dad wrote me a letter telling me how much he loved me and how proud he was of me and published it for the world to see in his blog, it meant so much to me that not only would he tell me all of those beautiful words, but at the same time, tell the world what he felt about me.
My brother wrote that some of the happiest and most special times in his life had me in the picture. WOW! I guess I make him laugh pretty hard huh?
My best friend, Alonso, wrote how he has come to know the Lord because he met me. I can't tell you how many thoughts of gratitude, happiness and joy came through my mind today. It was a great day. But one of the main thoughts was that I did not deserve any of this, but God has been a great God and given me friends and family that I don't deserve.
I want to thank everyone that wished me a Happy Birthday and promise you that I will TRY to remember yours when it comes around. Thank God for all of you.

Update

Everything is going well, today we had the group get in from Pensacola Christian College with Go Forth Baptist Missions. They had a great trip and everything went smoothly. Upon arrival (at 5am) they couldn't check into their hotel rooms yet, so we had to take them to breakfast and entertain them until around noon when they were supposed to get their rooms. When the went back to get into their rooms at noon, you guessed it, they weren't ready. They had actually just built some new rooms onto their hotel and were still getting the beds and everything else in, so they had to wait around till lunch (2pm) and go eat at our house, after that they went back and finally everybody got into their rooms at around 3pm.
They got some rest and are now on their way to Hunter Baptist Church. They are probably going to get to give some testimonies and sing and different things like that. The reason I'm not going is because Katie got her wisdom teeth pulled today and I have been staying home to take care of her most of the day, I went with her to the orthodontist along with my sister and brought her home, etc. Please pray for her that she would be feeling better soon, she has already shown some major improvement from this morning and tells me she is feeling much better. I am sure she will be fine by tomorrow, but still keep her in your prayers.

Tomorrow we are taking the group up to the Bible College and they are going to work there getting eveything take care of for the Medical Clinic, we have to set up divisions for the different doctors and nurses. I will put pictures up tomorrow and show you how everything is going.
God bless,
David

Strike is Over!

I just wanted to drop a small note to let everyone know that the strike is over and everything is getting back to normal. I guess somebody came in and made negotiations, whatever it was and now everything is fine. We will be going up to the Bible College to work on the Medical Clinic today, there is a lot to be done. We will be holding a press conference this week at Faith Baptist Church and we will be having many of the city's newspapers and, hopefully, tv stations there to ask questions and publish this around the city. We are also going to be setting up banners all around the city and publishing it on radio. Please pray with me that God will bring the amount of people we are hoping to see. I will give you some more updates as soon as I can. Thanks for keeping up with us.
God Bless,
David

Sunday Services and Nationwide Strike

Everything went well yesterday, we went to both morning services (8am and 11am) there was a total of 375 or so. That is a very good number, considering that the strike has not allowed many people to come in from around the city.

The evening service was pretty neat also, they had their annual "Pastor's Night" where they showed their appreciation for their pastors. They had some great specials and a wonderful message preached by Felipe Choquehuanca. They gave Alonso Montenegro, Jose Luis Ramirez, Chris Gardner, Mike Staley and their families gifts to show their appreciation. It was exciting to see people taking care of their pastors.

Be praying for the strike that is going on down here right now, there are people that aren't happy with the government right now and the whole country is pretty much frozen because of this strike. There are people protesting in the streets and also punishing in car that is in their path. It isn't bad at all if you obey the rules and stay away from all of the commotion, but it's still not good for the country because many people can't get to work and its just a big problem.

Anyway, today I am on my way up to the Bible College to see about how we are going to be splitting the rooms up for the Medical Clinic and just organizing all of that. Please keep praying for all of the medicines, etc.

Thanks for keeping up with us, its fun to know people care about what is going on. I have a few more pictures for ya. If you want to see a bigger version just click on each picture Here you go:

Delays Delays Delays

We finally made it last night at about 8pm. Our flight from Atlanta to Miami was delayed for 2 hours from 5:25 to 7:25 and our flight in Miami was delayed for 1 hour. After that we finally made it to Lima at about 5am. Once we arrived in Lima we stayed with a pastor of one of the churches there. He is a very good friend of ours and we are so glad that we got to stay with him for a few hours. I got to sleep for about two hours and then we got up and saw a little bit of the city. I took Katie for her first bus ride in Peru and we also rode in a "mototaxi"! It's a motorcycle that has been adapted to a three wheeler with two seats in the back for the passengers.

We had a wonderful time and it was a good break from all the delays. Please pray for Ruben Effio and his assistant pastor Luis Gutierrez. Here is a picture of them.

I will put up some more pictures after I finish writing so ya'll can see what we have been up to.

After being in Lima for the day, we went to the airport expecting our flight to be heading out by 2:40pm which was cancelled because of the strikes here in Peru. Our second flight was scheduled for 4:50 but guess what! Yipeeeeee! We got delayed again!!!!!!! We finally left lima at about 6:00 and arrived in Arequipa at 7:00pm.

Now that we are here everything is great, a little cold, but great. I obviously have already made a couple of stops at "El Turco" (the best restaurant in the world) and I'm heading there for lunch in the next half hour.

Chris and I have already been to the Bible College to see how we are going to set up the Medical Clinic. We had a meeting with some of the people that are helping set up and everything seems to be running smoothly, thanks for your prayers and we will let you know of anything new.

Here are some pics:

1. Getting started on the trip (obviously)

2. On the bus

3. In the moto taxi

Almost Packed and Ready To Leave

Well, it's 11:20pm and we are finished with most of our packing, we just lack packing our toiletries and "carry ons". Please be praying for our trip tomorrow and everything that God is going to be doing in the next month in our lives, I am really looking forward to all of this and know that He is going to use this in our lives to bring us closer to Him and also to grow us in our personal lives.
My parents will be picking us up here in Dawsonville and taking us to the airport around 12:30 or 1:00, our flight leaves at 5:25 and then we have a layover in Miami. Our flight leaves there around 10:50pm and we arrive in Lima at 4:50am. It will be a, somewhat, long trip and I hope everything goes as well as planned.
Thank you for keeping up with the blog, and I hope that I can keep up with this daily while in Peru.
God Bless,
David